What is the story about?
Mumbai and Pune are all set to have a woman mayor after the state government's reservation lottery for mayoral posts in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation
(BMC) and other municipal bodies on Thursday (January 22) determined that the richest civic body's mayoral seat will be reserved under the general women's category. Out of the 29 municipal corporations, one is for the Scheduled Tribe (ST), 3 for the Scheduled Caste (SC) (including 2 women SC), 8 for the Other Backward Caste (OBC) (including 4 women), and 17 for the General category (including 9 women), according to a TOI report.
Opposed by Shiv Sena (UBT) Leader
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar opposed the procedure, calling it "rigged". She claimed that the rules to arrive at this decision were changed without informing anyone.
“If there was a rotation policy, then why was BMC excluded? The lottery was conducted keeping in mind the winning corporators of the ruling party. Despite our objections, the state government proceeded with the lottery. This is a grave injustice to OBCs. In the rotation, BMC should have been reserved for OBC women or ST women. Instead, it violated rules, as the BJP doesn’t have any ST women corporators in BMC. ST corporators’ rights were denied,” Pednekar said, according to a TOI report.
She added that the last two mayors were from the general category, so the new mayor should have been from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) or the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. "We condemn the way the procedure (of lottery) was conducted," PTI reported, citing Pednekar.
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Reservation Breakdown for 29 Municipal Corporations Across MMR
- Mumbai - General Woman
- Dhule - General Woman
- Nashik - General Woman
- Bhiwandi-Nizampur - General
- Parbhani - General
- Kalyan-Dombivali - ST
- Pune - General Woman
- Chandrapur - OBC
- Kolhapur - OBC General
- Jalgaon - OBC Woman
- Mira-Bhayander - General Woman
- Vasai-Virar - General
- Ahilyanagar - OBC Woman
- Pimpri-Chinchwad - General
- Akola - OBC Woman
- Amravati - General
- Jalna - SC Woman
- Latur - SC Woman
- Ch. Sambhajinagar - General
- Nanded-Waghala - General Woman
- Navi Mumbai - General Woman
- Panvel - OBC
- Thane - SC
- Ulhasnagar - OBC General
- Nagpur - General Woman
- Malegaon - General Woman
- Ichalkaranji - OBC General
- Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad - General
- Solapur - General
Why Is Lottery Important in Determining Mayor’s Post Reservation?
The lottery, conducted by the State Urban Development Department today, determines the category for which the mayor's post will be reserved, including general, women, SC, ST, and OBC categories.
Once the category is announced, eligible candidates file their nominations.
